Round trips: PTGui, Hugin, Lightroom and Photoshop

PanoRyse reads and writes the project files of the common stitchers, works beside Lightroom Classic, and exchanges layered files with Photoshop.

PTGui, Hugin and Autopano projects

Open a project from another stitcher

1. Choose File > Open Project... and pick a PTGui (.pts), Hugin (.pto) or Autopano Giga (.pano) project. You can also drag the file onto the window, or use File > Import PTGui Project Script (.pts)..., Import Hugin Project (.pto)... or Import Autopano Giga Project (.pano)....
2. PanoRyse loads the source photos and takes over the camera positions, the lens (field of view and distortion), the control points (including vertical and horizontal line points), the masks, the exposure and the crop.
3. Stitch and develop as usual.

Save for another stitcher Scenic Pro

Use the File menu or the Export tab: Export Hugin Project (.pto)..., the PTGui export, or Export Autopano Giga Project (.pano).... The positions, lens values, control points, line points, masks and crops are written so the other program shows the same alignment. Projects of proxies are written at the size of the original files.

What travels: the camera rotations, the field of view, the lens distortion (a, b, c), the lens shift (d, e), exposure and vignetting, green include and red exclude masks, source crops, and control points of every type. A few values are close approximations rather than exact copies (the vignetting model and how some lens terms fold together).

Lightroom Classic

PanoRyse works with Lightroom Classic in three ways. All three are free.

Install the plug-in

1. Copy the folder PanoRyse.lrplugin (in integrations\lightroom\ of the PanoRyse folder) somewhere permanent, for example Documents\Lightroom Plug-ins\.
2. In Lightroom Classic choose File > Plug-in Manager..., click Add and select the PanoRyse.lrplugin folder.
3. In the PanoRyse section, check that the PanoRyse program is found; use Choose... to change it and Check to test it.

Lightroom Classic 6 (2015) or later is needed. The cloud version of Lightroom has no plug-ins.

Stitch from Lightroom and send it back

1. Select the frames. The active photo gives the panorama its develop settings, name and metadata.
2. Choose File > Plug-in Extras > Stitch in PanoRyse....
3. Choose what to send: Originals with their Lightroom develop settings (recommended; PanoRyse reads the basic settings from XMP) or 16-bit TIFFs rendered by Lightroom (every edit baked in, local adjustments included).
4. Choose what comes back: DNG (recommended; a linear DNG whose settings stay editable in Lightroom) or 16-bit TIFF.
5. PanoRyse opens with the banner "From Lightroom: 5 photos, return as DNG". Check, crop and develop as usual, then click Stitch and send back to Lightroom.
6. Lightroom adds <active photo>-Pano.dng to the catalogue, stacked above the active photo, with its keywords, title, caption, copyright, GPS and rating. Existing files are never overwritten.

Edit one photo

• Edit in PanoRyse... (the plug-in's second command) sends the active photo; the result comes back as <photo>-PanoRyse.tif or .dng.
• Or set PanoRyse as Lightroom's Additional External Editor (TIFF, sRGB, 16 bits) and use Photo > Edit In > PanoRyse. Press Save back to Lightroom when you are done.

Drag and drop, and XMP

Drag photos from Lightroom's Grid or from Explorer onto the PanoRyse window. XMP sidecars dragged with them are read for their develop settings. In Develop, Import XMP applies a sidecar or a Lightroom preset; Export Adobe Lightroom Sidecar (.xmp)... writes PanoRyse's settings for Lightroom.

Photoshop (PSD and PSB)

Send layers to Photoshop

1. Develop with layers (for example, separate the stars, or add an image layer).
2. In the Export tab choose Photoshop PSD, or Photoshop PSB for documents too large for PSD.
3. Open the file in Photoshop. Each picture layer is a Photoshop layer with its name, visibility, opacity, blend mode and mask. A masked global adjustment appears on top as "<name> (adjustment, baked)". The merged image is exactly what PanoRyse showed.

Bring a PSD into PanoRyse

Import a .psd or .psb as a photo. After a moment Image Layers shows its layers (the merged image is the hidden bottom layer, "Merged image"). Saving the project keeps them.

Known differences: Photoshop's own blend of the layers can differ slightly from the merged image where Screen or Multiply layers meet a strong global tone curve; Linear dodge is unclipped in PanoRyse and clipped in Photoshop; layer groups come in flat; ZIP-compressed layers are not read.